MTVhttp://www.adweek.com/taxonomy/term/2077/all
enSusanne Daniels Departs as MTV's Head of Programming to Join YouTubehttp://www.adweek.com/news/television/susanne-daniels-exiting-mtvs-head-programming-166068
Jason Lynch<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/2015_Jul/susanne-daniels-tv-hed-2015.jpg"> <p>
Just hours after <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/stop-its-ratings-slide-vh1-taps-mtv2-and-logos-chris-mccarthy-gm-166056" target="_blank">replacing the head</a> of one music-themed network, Viacom did it again.</p>
<p>
Susanne Daniels, MTV&#39;s head of programming since 2012, has left the company to take on the role of vp, YouTube originals, a newly-created position, Adweek has confirmed.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Daniels&#39; position will not be filled. Instead, MTV has promoted Mina Lefevre to evp and head of scripted development. She will serve as MTV&#39;s new co-head, alongside Lauren Dolgen, head of reality programming and evp of series development.</p>
<p>
Lefevre and Dolgen will report to MTV president Stephen Friedman.</p>
<p>
&quot;From [The Shannara Chronicles] to Finding Carter, Mina has an incredible talent for developing entirely new worlds, stories, and characters that always feel relatable and real to our fans,&quot; said Friedman in a statement. &quot;As MTV continues to pursue even more ambitious scripted projects, we&#39;re thrilled to have the leadership of a creative, collaborative executive like Mina.&quot;</p>
<p>
Lefevre, who joined MTV in 2013 as svp of scripted programming, said, &quot;MTV is a great place to take risks and create smart, fun projects that tell unique, youthful stories, and I&#39;m excited to take on a greater role as we bring more original series to our audience.&quot; She previously worked at ABC Family as vp of development and programming.</p>
<p>
MTV did not mention Daniels&#39; exit in its release, instead noting that Lefevre has developed many of the network&#39;s most successful shows, including Scream, Finding Carter and Faking It.</p>
<p>
It&#39;s been a busy day for Viacom&#39;s HR department. Earlier in the day, the company announced that Chris McCarthy would be <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/stop-its-ratings-slide-vh1-taps-mtv2-and-logos-chris-mccarthy-gm-166056" target="_blank">VH1&#39;s new gm</a>, replacing outgoing president Tom Calderone, who left yesterday.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
TelevisionCableLauren DolgenMina LefevreMTVSusanne DanielsWed, 22 Jul 2015 21:26:26 +0000166068 at http://www.adweek.comAd of the Day: People of Color Finally Get White Privilege on Demand With White Squadhttp://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/ad-day-people-color-finally-get-white-privilege-demand-white-squad-165948
David Gianatasio<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/white-squad-hed-2015.jpg"> <p>
Thought provoking, exceptionally well executed and controversial, MTV&#39;s satirical <a href="http://www.whitesquad.com/" target="_blank">&quot;White Squad&quot;</a> is one of the best social-issues campaigns in recent memory.</p>
<p>
Part of the cable network&#39;s broader <a href="http://www.lookdifferent.org/" target="_blank">&quot;Look Different&quot;</a> anti-prejudice initiative, &quot;White Squad,&quot; which broke on Wednesday, has already generated lots of attention in social and traditional media. It posits a Geek Squad-style team of chalk-hued, corporate-consultant types eager to assist people of color with stuff like hailing cabs, renting apartments and courtroom appearances.</p>
<p>
&quot;Is your skin color holding you back?&quot; asks an eager, earnest, bespectacled white guy at the start of a 90-second commercial for the nonexistent service. &quot;I&#39;d like to tell you about a new solution to racial inequality: White Squad&mdash;professional white advantage services.&quot; The group&#39;s &quot;carefully selected white representatives,&quot; we&#39;re told, will serve as &quot;your stand-ins for life&#39;s racially unbalanced situations.&quot;<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="367" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/U6JrJFJs0GA?rel=0" width="652"></iframe><br />
<br />
Scenes of grinning, non-threatening, fair-skinned Squad members &quot;standing in&quot; for non-whites are offset by a series of disturbing real-world stats: Whites have 20 percent more housing options, a 67 percent lower incarceration rate and receive 40 percent more private college scholarships.</p>
<p>
This stuff is good, from the pitch-perfect line deliveries (never goofy or over the top) and open floor plan of the Squad&#39;s very vanilla office, right down to their ubiquitous black-on-white happy-face lapel pins.</p>
<p>
The web experience offers plenty of tongue-in-cheek &quot;informational&quot; layers to explore. Under &quot;Our Team,&quot; for example, we meet the pinstriped-suited &quot;Middle-Aged White Male &hellip; Everything about his appearance says &#39;Credit Worthy,&#39; and he&#39;ll ensure maximum advantage during any interactions with banking institutions. He&#39;s often given a better deal than he requests!&quot;</p>
<p>
Clicking the &quot;Schedule appointment&quot; button reveals the truth: The White Squad was created &quot;to illustrate how white privilege works and how it impacts people&#39;s lives.&quot; There are many such conduits on the site, as well as on the 1-855-WHT-SQAD &quot;help line,&quot; pointing users to MTV&#39;s &quot;Look Different&quot; hub for more information and resources. The MTV documentary White People, made by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and activist Jose Antonio Vargas, and airing on July 22, also gets a plug.</p>
<p>
Party in New York developed the campaign. Evan SIlver and Howard Grandison directed the spot via production house Reform School.</p>
<p>
Public reaction to &quot;White Squad&quot; has run the gamut. Many praise its cheeky approach while others blast MTV for creating a humorous springboard around such serious, divisive issues. Some have leveled charges of reverse racism (for picking on white people, I guess), and a few folks found the campaign so convincing, they wondered&mdash;fleetingly, one hopes&mdash;if the service was real.</p>
<p>
As the site says, &quot;White privilege is real. White Squad is fiction.&quot; Even so, it speaks uncomfortable truths in a highly entertaining fashion, sparking discussion and, hopefully, moving users to give some thought to matters many of us would just as soon ignore. The creative is never crass or condescending. Rather, it respects the intelligence of its audience, rewarding users&#39; curiosity (and willingness to open their minds).</p>
<p>
If &quot;White Squad&quot; cuts too close to the bone or provokes discomfort, that surely means it&#39;s having the desired effect.</p>
<p>
<strong>CREDITS</strong><br />
Client: MTV<br />
Agency: Party New York<br />
Executive Creative Director: Masa Kawamura<br />
Creative Director and Copywriter: Jamie Carreiro<br />
Technical Director: Qanta Shimizu<br />
Design Director and Programmer: Eiji Muroichi<br />
Executive Producer: Jamie Nami Kim<br />
Project Manager: Suzette Lee</p>
<p>
Production Company: Reform School<br />
Directors: Howard Grandison &amp; Evan Silver<br />
Executive Producer: Josh Greenberg<br />
Line Producer: Aaron Rosenbloom<br />
Director of Photography: Clint Byrne<br />
Art Director: Nicole Heffron<br />
Sound: Rob Corso<br />
Editorial Company: Nomad Editing Co.<br />
Editor: Tyler Peck<br />
Assistant Editor: James Lee<br />
Executive Producer: Tommy Murov<br />
Post Producer: Weston Ver Steeg</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
Advertising & BrandingAd of The DayMTVRaceCreativeFri, 17 Jul 2015 13:35:19 +0000165948 at http://www.adweek.comBrands Start Hosting Real-Time Video Chats on Facebookhttp://www.adweek.com/news/technology/brands-start-hosting-real-time-video-chats-facebook-165944
Lauren Johnson<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/iheart-radio-hed-2015_0.png"> <p>
Media brands were quick to adopt video apps <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/marketers-weigh-periscope-vs-meerkat-163691" target="_blank">Periscope and Meerkat</a> to broadcast live streams, and now Facebook marketers want in on that action.</p>
<p>
Social platform BumeBox started hosting <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/new-facebook-tool-lets-marketers-host-real-time-chats-celebs-160853" target="_blank">live Facebook chats</a> for brands like VH1 and Discovery Channel back in October, as an alternative to the <a href="https://media.twitter.com/best-practice/twitter-qa" target="_blank">Twitter Q&amp;As</a>&nbsp;that brands typically organize. For example, Sony Masterworks set up a real-time chat on Facebook to promote a new album from artist Jackie Evancho last fall.</p>
<p>
Now, MTV and iHeartRadio are plugging video into those virtual meet and greets.</p>
<p>
Late Thursday afternoon, MTV set up a Facebook chat with Teen Mom 2 star Kailyn Lowry to talk about her show. And last week, iHeartRadio <a href="https://www.facebook.com/iheartradio/posts/10153470508329172" target="_blank">ran a Facebook Q&amp;A</a> with YouTube singer Max Schneider. He responded to eight questions from fans in one hour with short video clips.</p>
<p>
It&#39;s all part of <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/facebook-trying-edge-out-youtube-164163" target="_blank">Facebook&#39;s plan</a> to turn the site into a video platform for brands, publishers and creators. Clips are uploaded straight to Facebook through BumeBox&#39;s platform with a branded logo at the top of the screen, similar to what Periscope streams look like.</p>
<p>
The social videos aren&#39;t technically streamed since they are uploaded, but the idea is to crank out responses through clips quickly, similar to how brands use Periscope and Meerkat to answer questions in real time.</p>
<p>
Unlike Meerkat or Periscope, though, the videos are saved and posted to brands&#39; pages, which Chris Williams, iHeartRadio&#39;s chief product officer, said is a major differentiator.</p>
<p>
&quot;What BumeBox allows us to do is start a conversation with the fans in our Facebook feed hours or days in advance, set the appointment to connect, and by the time the artist joins in, we have built anticipation and curated the best content for a compelling conversation,&quot; he said. &quot;Because of the way the video is published within the chain of conversation, it gives even greater opportunity for the interaction to be shared by fans pre-event, during, and post-event.&quot;</p>
TechnologyBumeBoxFacebookFacebookiHeartRadiolive streamingLauren JohnsonPeriscopeThu, 16 Jul 2015 23:14:52 +0000165944 at http://www.adweek.comTo Promote Its New Scream Series, MTV Is 'Killing' Its Audiencehttp://www.adweek.com/news/television/promote-its-new-scream-series-mtv-killing-its-audience-165402
Jason Lynch<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/2015_Jun/Scream-MakeADecision-hed-2015.jpg"> <p>
As MTV continues its huge promotional push on social media for the upcoming series Scream, the network has unveiled its latest method for hooking potential viewers&mdash;&quot;killing&quot; them.</p>
<p>
In the spirit of Scream, a series based on the hit horror-film franchise that debuts June 30, MTV has launched Choose Your Own Murder, an interactive online game that places users in the middle of their own horror movie scenario, which unfolds from their POV and asks them to select from various options a way to escape a killer that&#39;s pursuing them.</p>
<p>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="367" scrolling="no" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/stage.interlude.fm/mtv_scream/0.0.10/index.html" width="652"></iframe></p>
<p>
As the game begins, the user is about to have sex with a half-naked woman when there&#39;s a noise outside the bedroom. The action pauses while the user has 10 seconds to choose between two options: &quot;Go check it out&quot; or &quot;Ignore it.&quot; As in the Choose Your Own Adventure books, the story unfolds differently depending on the path users take. (Later options include &quot;Run for door&quot;/&quot;Hide &amp; call someone&quot; and &quot;Stay where you are&quot;/&quot;Go out window.&quot;)</p>
<p>
The end result, however, is always the same: users are murdered, and in a variety of different ways&mdash;sometimes right after their first selection. &quot;No matter what you choose, you die,&quot; said Matt McDonough, MTV&#39;s director of&nbsp;digital strategy and fan engagement. However, there&#39;s always life after simulated death; users are immediately given the option to play again or share the game via social media.</p>
<p>
Choose Your Own Murder represents MTV&#39;s latest social-media splash as the network promotes Scream, its highest-profile summer series. Last October, MTV used its Twitter and Snapchat accounts to direct fans to call a phone number that announced Scream&#39;s arrival in 2015. In May, MTV shared its&nbsp;<a href="http://www.mtv.com/shows/scream/scream-season-1-killer-party/1198871/video/#id=1735915" target="_blank">Killer Party promo</a>, which featured stars from shows like Teen Wolf and Awkward and Faking It all &quot;murdered&quot; after attending the worst. party. ever.</p>
<p>
&quot;When we look at digital and social, we think, are there ways to create experiences that we think fit the thematic tone of the franchise but also take advantage of what those platforms do well beyond just highlighting video content to create an experience that people are going to want to spend time with and share?&quot; said Jack Daley, vp of digital content strategy and production. &quot;We wanted something that&#39;s interactive and replayable, but it doesn&#39;t feel like you have to spend 45 minutes to do it.&quot;</p>
<p>
&quot;Scream has always been about using all the horror movie clich&eacute;s and then breaking them,&quot; said McDonough. &quot;So, it always has to start with the hot girl in her underwear. You always have to go with the rules of surviving a horror movie&mdash;don&#39;t run up the stairs, never say &#39;I&#39;ll be right back&#39;&mdash;but no matter what you do in the Scream franchise, those rules can always be broken.&quot; As a result, the game &quot;felt very aligned with the essence of what that franchise is,&quot; said Daley.</p>
<p>
The unique promotional approach was also born out of necessity, given the secrecy surrounding who among the show&#39;s characters live and die.</p>
<p>
&quot;Going with something that has as many spoilers as Scream, you have a limited amount to work with on what we can reveal but making something that tells our audience that we know horror was something that was really important to us,&quot; said McDonough.</p>
<p>
MTV partnered on the game with outside production company Divide and Conquer, which brought on directors Dennis Widmyer and Kevin Kolsch, who helmed the 2014 horror film Starry Eyes. Media and technology company Interlude, meanwhile, handled the game&#39;s choose-your-own-adventure-style elements. &quot;It really feels like you&#39;re making choices that are influencing a seamless piece of video content,&quot; said Daley.</p>
<p>
The network hopes users will share Choose Your Own Murder as much as its previous promotional content for Scream. &quot;At the core, this is where our audience is, and this is where they&#39;re spending their time and attention. It&#39;s where they&#39;re consuming an increasing amount of content, broadly defined, and communicating with each other,&quot; said Daley.</p>
<p>
That also means there will be more Scream social media activity to come. &quot;We&#39;re going to be pushing a lot of content and promotion out through all of those channels from now through the entire season,&quot; Daley said. &quot;We want to surround you with all things Scream, and different consumers will react to different pieces of that. So it&#39;s just part of the puzzle.&quot;</p>
TelevisionCableJack DaleyMatt McDonoughMTVScreamJason LynchFri, 19 Jun 2015 19:00:01 +0000165402 at http://www.adweek.comWhy Vanity Fair’s Caitlyn Jenner Cover Became Instantly Iconichttp://www.adweek.com/news/press/why-vanity-fair-s-caitlyn-jenner-cover-became-instantly-iconic-165336
Emma Bazilian<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/tt-iconic-magazine-covers-01-2015.jpg"> <p>
Vanity Fair made headlines this month with the release of its July 2015 cover, featuring a photograph of <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/press/caitlyn-jenner-makes-her-debut-vanity-fair-165098" target="_blank">Caitlyn Jenner shot by Annie Leibovitz.</a> It didn&#39;t take long for the image to become a viral sensation&mdash;or for people to begin speculating that it had earned a spot in the pantheon of &quot;iconic&quot; magazine covers.</p>
<p>
But what is it, exactly, that makes a cover iconic? We spoke to four of the people behind some of the industry&#39;s most-lauded covers&mdash;Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, legendary Esquire art director George Lois, Rolling Stone managing editor Will Dana and former Bloomberg Businessweek creative director Richard Turley (who is now svp of visual storytelling and deputy editorial director for MTV)&mdash;to find out.</p>
<p>
One thing everyone agreed on is that there is no magic formula for a successful cover. However, there are a few things that all iconic covers have in common. &quot;It&#39;s a bit like capturing lightning in a bottle,&quot; said Carter. &quot;A great idea and simplicity in execution help. An iconic cover also has to tell you something about the age we&#39;re living in. And the best ones don&#39;t look like any cover you&#39;ve seen before.&quot;</p>
<div class="news-article-image" style="float: right;margin-left: 20px; margin-right: 0;">
<img class="fancyzoom" data-fancybox-src="/files/imagecache/node-detail/ali-esquire-01-2015.jpg" src="/files/imagecache/test-width/ali-esquire-01-2015.jpg" />
<p class="caption">
George Lois posed Muhammad Ali as Saint Sebastian.</p>
</div>
<p>
Memorable covers also criticize&mdash;and even try to change&mdash;the current culture, added Lois, who was responsible for famous Esquire covers showing <a href="http://www.georgelois.com/pages/Esquire/Esq.Ali.html" target="_blank">Muhammad Ali as Saint Sebastian,</a> a young woman in a trash can (the cover line read &quot;The New American Woman: Through at 21&quot;) and various jabs at the war in Vietnam. &quot;[Good magazines] don&#39;t brand themselves because they have a famous person on the cover or because the blurbs are hot stuff; they brand themselves by showing people that they are intelligent and can speak to the zeitgeist,&quot; said Lois.</p>
<p>
Even when the components are all there, it can be difficult to tell how readers will ultimately react. In the case of Rolling Stone&#39;s Boston Bomber cover, which was hastily assembled just a few days before the issue&#39;s close (and wasn&#39;t even intended to become a cover when the story was first assigned), &quot;I didn&#39;t anticipate the backlash,&quot; said Dana. &quot;Certainly I thought it would be controversial, but I didn&#39;t think it would rise to the level that it did &hellip; [With social media], the volume gets turned up so much.&quot;</p>
<p>
The <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/caitlyn-jenner-posts-were-read-6-times-often-stories-about-sepp-blatter-165178" target="_blank">explosion of social media,</a> of course, has helped magazine covers have a wider impact than ever before. Turley, in particular, credits Twitter, which was just hitting the mainstream when he joined Businessweek in 2010, with helping his boundary-pushing Businessweek covers gain wider acclaim.&quot;We were early adopters in making sure that the covers were available on the Internet and that we tweeted them out,&quot; he said. &quot;An image that you could share with your friends to say, &#39;Look how smart I am, I follow this&#39;&mdash;that kind of currency became more and more important.&quot;</p>
<div class="news-article-image" style="float: right;margin-left: 20px; margin-right: 0;">
<img class="fancyzoom" data-fancybox-src="/files/imagecache/node-detail/bloomberg-businessweek-cover-01-2015.jpg" src="/files/imagecache/test-width/bloomberg-businessweek-cover-01-2015.jpg" />
<p class="caption">
The macho mythology of hedge fund managers</p>
</div>
<p>
At the same time, social media has also made it tougher for covers to stand out, said Dana. &quot;It&#39;s hard to break something like that on a magazine cover nowadays because social media gets there so much before you,&quot; he explained. &quot;Something like Caitlyn Jenner where there&#39;s that same level of hype and surprise and the sense of something being revealed&mdash;that&#39;s not something that comes along very often.&quot;</p>
<p>
Still, in an age where print is being constantly subsumed by digital, the impact of a cover like &quot;Call me Caitlyn&quot; proves that the magazine still holds an important place in the media landscape, regardless of whether it&#39;s being consumed on a newsstand or in an Instagram feed.</p>
<p>
&quot;Magazines have such an opportunity every month to knock you on your ass, to really get you excited,&quot; Lois enthused. &quot;What a canvas a magazine cover is!&quot;</p>
The PressAnnie LeibovitzBloomberg BusinessweekBoston BomberCaitlyn JennerEsquireEmma BazilianMagazinesMTVMuhammad AliRolling StoneSocial MediaVanity FairMon, 15 Jun 2015 23:33:31 +0000165336 at http://www.adweek.comNicola Formichetti Has Come a Long Way From Lady Gaga's 'Meat Dress'http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/nicola-formichetti-has-come-long-way-lady-gagas-meat-dress-164432
Emma Bazilian<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/2015_May/fea-formichetti-01-2015.jpg"> <p>
You might not know the name <a href="http://talent.adweek.com/gallery/23611311/Peter-Rigaud-Nicola-Formichetti-for-VOGUE-Germany" target="_blank">Nicola Formichetti</a>, and yet even the least fashion-savvy among us is sure to have seen his work.</p>
<p>
The 37-year-old Japanese-Italian designer got his start as a columnist for Britain&#39;s Dazed &amp; Confused magazine, becoming creative director there in 2008. The following year, he styled then-newcomer Lady Gaga for V magazine, leading to a partnership that helped establish the singer as an international fashion icon. (Formichetti was responsible for looks like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8xD2prdC2Y" target="_blank">the instantly iconic &quot;meat dress&quot;</a> she wore to the <a href="http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/2010-mtv-video-music-awards-a-social-experience-for-mtv-fans/54258" target="_blank">2010 MTV Video Music Awards</a>.) Teaming up with the pop star also propelled Formichetti into the fashion stratosphere.</p>
<div class="news-article-image">
<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/2015_May/fea-formichetti-02a-2015.jpg" />
<p class="caption">
Formichetti used to work as a columnist for Britain&#39;s Dazed &amp; Confused magazine.&nbsp;<span class="meta-credit">Photo: Yu Tsai</span></p>
</div>
<p>
Despite his lack of formal design training, Formichetti landed coveted positions with big labels. In 2010, he was appointed creative director of French fashion house Thierry Mugler, where he oversaw a successful brand revival. The next year he added fashion director of Japanese fast-fashion brand Uniqlo to his resum&eacute; and launched his own pop-up shop in New York.</p>
<p>
But it was in 2013 that Formichetti would take on his most significant project to date, as artistic director of Diesel, the Italian denim brand turned multibillion-dollar global lifestyle giant.</p>
<p>
Founded in 1978, Diesel was the first company to bring the concept of &quot;premium denim&quot; to the masses, leading to massive success in the &#39;80s and &#39;90s. By the 2000s, however, as purveyors of high-end denim crowded the market, Diesel began to fall out of favor with younger consumers. But today, the edgy, sometimes shockingly original Formichetti is working to restore luster and relevance to the Diesel name&mdash;all while launching his own magazine, starting his own fashion line and becoming an ambassador for none other than Pepsi.</p>
<p>
Adweek caught up with the busiest man in the business to talk about the mammoth task of retooling a global brand, the industry&#39;s love affair with celebrity (and stubbornly slow embrace of digital technology), and why you won&#39;t find any miserable-looking models in his ads.</p>
<div class="news-article-image">
<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/2015_May/fea-formichetti-04-2015.jpg" /></div>
<div class="news-article-image" style="margin: 0px 25px 25px 25px; float: right;">
<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/2015_May/fea-formichetti-04a-2015.jpg" style="height: 728px; width: 175px;" /></div>
<p>
<strong>Adweek: You were named artistic director of Diesel<br />
almost exactly two years ago. Overhauling a brand that big is a major undertaking. How has it gone so far?</strong><br />
Nicola Formichetti: Yeah, it&#39;s crazy. It&#39;s already been two years and I feel like I haven&#39;t even started. I didn&#39;t know that it was going to be this big. Everything I do, it&#39;s all about my gut feeling. If I get a good vibe or good feeling, I just go for it, you know? I don&#39;t really think about how to fit things in my schedule. I&#39;m crazy busy, but I still have time to go out and have fun and go to a restaurant or go jogging. I feel like I still have spare time&mdash;so I can add a couple more projects, you know? [Laughs.]</p>
<p>
But yeah, the Diesel thing was a little bit &hellip; it&#39;s actually getting bigger and bigger because I&#39;m getting really into it. For the last two years, I&#39;ve just been rebuilding from within&mdash;looking inside the company and at the 35 years of history, talking to the owner Renzo [Rosso], and really finding out what was amazing about Diesel and what was wrong. So now the exciting time happens because now I feel like I have an amazing army of people I can trust within the company, and now we can really go global.<br />
<br />
<strong>What were your biggest challenges in terms of rebuilding the brand internally?</strong><br />
Normally, if you get a job at a brand like this, what you do is you go in and you change everything. You basically cut out all the old and then bring in the new, right? That&#39;s the formula that other people are doing. But the way I started with Diesel was that I met up with Renzo and I really kind of fell in love with the way he was living his life. We had this connection and I just thought, wow, it would be amazing to work with this incredible entrepreneur for the next part of my life and really learn about business and creating this big empire. I was a big fan of Diesel in the &#39;90s&mdash;I mean, I couldn&#39;t afford it because it was very expensive at that time for me. So we talked about how the company became so big and global that it kind of lost its touch, its relevance, and he said to me that he really wanted me to come on board and bring back that spice, that coolness that Diesel used to have.</p>
<p>
When I first visited the company in Italy, Renzo showed me all of the archives, all the amazing stuff that they used to do. And I was like, you have all these amazing things here, so rather than just really starting everything from scratch, I just wanted to refine it and reboot it. It was about reintroducing the DNA of Diesel, which was all about denim, leather, army surplus and sportswear. All the collections I&#39;ve been doing for them have been all about these four big elements, so that was kind of a starting point. Then I had to find out who were the right people within the company.<br />
<br />
<strong>Tell us about Diesel&#39;s retail strategy.</strong><br />
I&#39;m about to launch a new concept for the stores. The first one will be in New York and then Milan. If the concept is amazing&mdash;and I&#39;m sure it will be&mdash;then next year we&#39;re going to roll it out to all of our stores, more than 300 all over the world.<br />
<br />
<strong>So do you think that the global expansion of the Diesel brand diluted its identity?</strong><br />
For sure. With licensing, it&#39;s a big money maker, but at the same time you&#39;re kind of selling your name. And so what Renzo&#39;s done is he&#39;s basically buying all the licensees out so we can control the whole thing. For example, what we&#39;re doing with the watches and the sunglasses and the perfume is great because we have a really good relationship with all those different partners. But you have to have control over it.</p>
<div class="news-article-image">
<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/2015_May/fea-formichetti-03-2015.jpg" />
<p class="caption">
Formichetti was named artistic director of Diesel about two years ago.&nbsp;<span class="meta-credit">Photo: Yu Tsai</span></p>
</div>
<p>
Until last year, you&#39;d see those big stores on Broadway [in New York] where they sell T-shirts and they&#39;d have Nike and Levi&#39;s and the big red Diesel logo. So we&#39;re not using the red logo anymore&mdash;we are only using the new black and white logo, and we&#39;re keeping the red logo as more of a history. I might use it again for something later, but for now we want to keep everything very streamlined and make it more specific for the new generation of Diesel.<br />
<br />
<strong>What changes have you made design-wise to appeal to the new generation of customers?</strong><br />
Denim was all about editing what&#39;s right, what&#39;s the right shape and what&#39;s the right treatment, you know, because sometimes at Diesel we can just be a little bit too overwhelming with so many different washes and shapes. We&#39;re selling in so many different countries and there are different needs for different countries, so in the end, we have this humongous collection of denim. It&#39;s almost like a supermarket.</p>
<p>
With the [apparel] collection, including the leather and sportswear, it was about keeping all the iconic shapes and key pieces and kind of refreshing it. I don&#39;t see Diesel as a high-fashion brand&mdash;it sort of fits in between high fashion, casual and high street. I call it the new alternative area. High fashion pushes trends, but with Diesel I want to create a stable wardrobe that is right today and will be right next year.<br />
<br />
<strong>Since Diesel reached its height in the late &#39;90s, so many premium denim brands have entered the market. Has that made it a lot harder for the company to compete?</strong><br />
Yeah, for sure. In the &#39;90s, Diesel was the first one to basically bring much more premium denim [to the market], but it also it had really incredible advertisements, like the famous David LaChapelle ones with two guys kissing. And that made Diesel super cool&mdash;it had both the new product and the very edgy marketing, which was a very unique thing at that time. And of course, over the last 20 years, things evolved and everyone is doing crazy advertisements now and everyone&#39;s doing denim. So yeah, it&#39;s a huge challenge that we have.</p>
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<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/2015_May/fea-formichetti-05-2015.jpg" /></div>
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<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/2015_May/fea-formichetti-05a-2015.jpg" style="height: 728px; width: 175px;" /></div>
<p>
For me, it&#39;s very, very important to always [focus on] new denim technologies. We&#39;re constantly thinking about what could be the &quot;new&quot; denim, like <a href="http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/diesel-creates-alphabet-dance-promote-flexible-new-jeans-156983" target="_blank">the new Jogg jeans</a> we created a couple of years ago, which are basically a jogging pant that looks like denim. And then, of course, the marketing campaigns are super important. I always try to do something different and new every time I work on the images.<br />
<br />
<strong>Tell us about the current Diesel campaigns.</strong><br />
The #DieselHigh campaign is by my favorite photographer, Nick Knight. Basically, [the concept] was very simple: I just wanted everyone to smile, because you never see people smiling anymore in campaigns. They&#39;re either very cool or upset looking. I feel like Diesel is much more about inclusiveness and not exclusiveness, so I just wanted to have a group of boys and girls just having fun and laughing. There&#39;s so many horrible, negative things happening at the moment in the world that, at least where I can control, I just want to have some people smiling.</p>
<p>
We also have another campaign out right now that&#39;s specifically for Jogg jeans, the jersey-denim hybrid. I worked with this artist that I found on Instagram named Doug Abraham [@BessNYC4] who has this incredible account where he does these collages of hybrid things, so since I had to promote the idea of hybrid jogging and denim, I asked him [to create art for the campaign]. It was super cool to work with a digital artist that I found on Instagram. And that&#39;s the beauty of Diesel&mdash;you can do this kind of stuff because they&#39;re very open to trying new things.<br />
<br />
<strong>Speaking of Instagram, you were an early adopter of social media, which you actually spoke about during a talk at South by Southwest this year.</strong><br />
It was very inspiring because I love social media and I love the digital world, but I never talk about it in detail. It was really interesting for me to look back. I mean, I started with Myspace! Remember Myspace? [Laughs.] My first-ever job was with Alexander McQueen, when they launched the McQ brand. It was kind of a secondary line, and I remember going on Myspace and casting specific types of people [for a marketing campaign], and that was about 10 years ago.</p>
<p>
At South by Southwest, the big topic was Meerkat and Periscope, which blew me away. I got so excited. I was like, oh my God, how am I going to use these for what I&#39;m doing? So I just started using them, and I like both&mdash;I love the spontaneousness of Meerkat and I love the logo, but I also love that with Periscope you can just install all your videos and people can see your old videos, almost like a diary. I cannot decide which one&#39;s better yet. [Laughs.]<br />
<br />
<strong>Do you see those as being something the Diesel brand could use for marketing?</strong><br />
Oh my God, for sure. I want to use it myself first and get the hang of it, but sure, it could be incredible. When I was at Mugler, before Diesel, it was a big thing when I livestreamed an entire fashion show, and now, of course, everyone does livestreaming. But with Meerkat or Periscope, every single person who is there can [have their own] reality show in a way. They can be livestreaming everything from different angles. I mean, if I want to go and see a concert, I can just follow all the fans there so I can see the concert from different angles. It&#39;s mind-blowing.<br />
<br />
<strong>Have you tried out any of the new virtual reality headsets yet?</strong><br />
Yeah, of course, of course. [I&#39;ve tried] the Samsung ones, and a director who makes films for the Oculus showed me one of his videos, and now I&#39;m really thinking of using one for a fashion show or an event. It was like, oh my God, I felt like I was falling from the chair. It was a really beautiful experience. I mean, imagine what they&#39;re going to do with porn! You don&#39;t have to have a partner anymore! [Laughs.] It was that real, you know?<br />
<br />
<strong>So do you think people will be livestreaming fashion shows in virtual reality at some point?</strong><br />
I don&#39;t think it&#39;s going to be that far away. And I want to be the first one to do it&mdash;I want to be the first one to do all that stuff. I feel like, in fashion in general, we are so behind. People have an Instagram account and they think they&#39;re digital. When I first joined Diesel, I launched this campaign called &quot;Diesel Reboot,&quot; and I created a Tumblr account so that people could submit their work and start a dialogue with us. Tumblr told me that we were the first brand to create a Tumblr account on that scale. And that was only two years ago.<br />
<br />
<strong>Why do you think fashion has been so slow to get into the digital game?</strong><br />
Because we have an establishment. Both the marketing side and design side are behind, I think. As far as marketing, I feel like magazines are still one of the only ways to communicate fashion, and I think that needs to change. I&#39;m not saying magazines are dying, because they&#39;re not&mdash;you cannot go wrong with an incredible fashion story on paper. But we also should think of other ways [to communicate]. And then with the designing as well&mdash;we haven&#39;t really invented anything new since, I don&#39;t know, when did they start stitching clothes? I&#39;m sure there must be a new way of binding two different materials, or maybe it&#39;s not even about fabrics anymore. I think that we can be much more advanced, and I&#39;m always on the lookout for new things like that.<br />
<br />
<strong>You actually just launched your own magazine. Tell us about that.</strong><br />
It&#39;s a high-fashion magazine that&#39;s free, and it&#39;s called Free. It launched in Japan [and is published in Japanese], and we&#39;re working with an incredible distributor, a big bookstore called Tsutaya. Normally when you think of a free magazine, it&#39;s like a supplement or whatever. It&#39;s very low quality. But what we&#39;ve done is we&#39;ve created a really high level of content, and we distribute it specifically to customers that we want to go after, which is [consumers age 18-40] who love fashion. It&#39;s very targeted. Now, I want to introduce a Free magazine for younger girls or a Free magazine that&#39;s more specific to art or a Free magazine for cars. I&#39;m developing a new concept for a different kind of genre.<br />
<br />
<strong>Do you think you&#39;ll launch international editions?</strong><br />
I want to do one in English very soon. We already have an offer [to launch an edition] in China. And, of course, you can see everything online on the Free magazine website, so I&#39;m playing with the idea of the physical and the digital based on that.<br />
<br />
<strong>Have you found that younger consumers still actually want to read magazines in their printed form?</strong><br />
Well, especially in Asia&mdash;Japan and China, the two markets I know well&mdash;they&#39;re still obsessed with paper magazines, especially the young generation. It&#39;s working amazingly well in Japan and hopefully in China, too. Other places, I don&#39;t know. Hopefully. [Laughs.]<br />
<br />
<strong>Before you started working with Diesel or Mugler, you became really well known for styling Lady Gaga early in her career. What was that like? Are you still collaborating with other artists?</strong><br />
Gaga introduced me to the music world and the entertainment world, and for me, it was very new, so I kind of treated it as if I was doing a collection or as if I was doing a magazine shoot. And I think we created some of the most amazing stuff I&#39;ve done, like the beautiful music videos and some of the crazy looks. I did that for four or five years, and then it was time to move on and concentrate on my own stuff with Mugler and Diesel.</p>
<p>
Now that I have a little bit more time, I&#39;m working with this young rapper called Brooke Candy. I really believe in her. She&#39;s going to release an album this summer, and I&#39;m doing all her visuals, and Sia is the executive music producer. So she&#39;s not going to go wrong. [Laughs.] She&#39;s got a great look and great music. I mean, what else do you need?<br />
<br />
<strong>Six years ago, it was a big deal for you as a high-fashion designer to be working with Gaga, but now it seems like every designer is forming similar relationships with up-and-coming talent.</strong><br />
It&#39;s crazy. You know, when I first started working with Gaga, everyone used to go against me, saying, &quot;You work in high fashion, you shouldn&#39;t work with a musician.&quot; Back then, you could name only a few [artists] that were really collaborating with fashion designers, like Madonna with [Jean Paul] Gaultier and Bjork with [Alexander] McQueen. So when I first started borrowing clothes for Gaga, people said no. They were like, &quot;Oh, I&#39;m so sorry, we don&#39;t think she&#39;s right,&quot; or, &quot;She&#39;s a bit crazy looking.&quot; So I made stuff, and we had young designers make stuff for us, and there were a few designers that were really into her from the beginning, like Alexander McQueen and Miuccia Prada. And that was how many years ago? Now, it&#39;s like [as a performer] you have to have a designer making stuff for you for the red carpet. And I love it. We&#39;re all one giant industry working on entertainment and fashion and technology.<br />
<br />
<strong>Do you have any plans to work with any other musicians or celebrities for Diesel?</strong><br />
Yeah, last year we worked with Beyonc&eacute; on her tour. I made some crazy denim outfits for her. That was amazing. We also do specific tour outfits and red carpet [outfits]. That is my passion, so I want to go big on it this year. I&#39;m still thinking about who else to collaborate with.<br />
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<strong>Are you still involved with Uniqlo?</strong><br />
Yeah, Uniqlo has been so supportive of me for eight years now. I&#39;m still consulting with them. I love them. It&#39;s crazy to say, but I&#39;ve been doing this for a long time now and I feel like finally I get to really enjoy what I&#39;m doing for all the different projects. I mean, it&#39;s hard still because of the travel, but if you do something that you love, I think you get over that. I don&#39;t care if I don&#39;t sleep much. It&#39;s like going to a great party and partying all night because you love it with your friends. I&#39;m still young, 37. I can go for another three years, five years, I don&#39;t know, 10 years! [Laughs.]<br />
<br />
<strong>On top of everything else you&#39;re doing, you also have your own fashion line, Nicopanda.</strong><br />
Yeah, that&#39;s my baby! I suppose Diesel&#39;s like my day job and then Nicopanda&#39;s my weekend job. [Laughs.] But it&#39;s something I started with my brother in Japan. We started as a very small T-shirt thing, and last season we launched a full-fledged collection during New York Fashion Week and it&#39;s now the second season. I mean, it&#39;s crazy. It&#39;s doing so well because the price point is incredible; I just wanted to have clothes that my fans could buy so I kept [the prices] very, very reasonable. And it&#39;s unisex, so boys and girls wearing the same thing, which is very fun. It&#39;s my Japanese side that I&#39;m exploring. It&#39;s very &quot;kawaii&quot; street wear. [Laughs.]<br />
<br />
<strong>What&#39;s next for you?</strong><br />
The other exciting thing I&#39;m doing is I was invited to be one of the ambassadors for the new Pepsi Challenge. They chose different people from different areas of the industry. I&#39;m like the ambassador of design, and Usher is the ambassador for music, and there&#39;s also Serena Williams, the tennis player, and this young soccer player James Rodriguez, and my favorite, favorite social media person, this French guy called Jerome Jarr&eacute;. So every month we&#39;ll give challenges to people and they&#39;ll get to win experiences and rewards, and for every #PepsiChallenge hashtag, Pepsi is going to donate $1 to a charity. It&#39;s great. I mean, it&#39;s crazy&mdash;I did a TV commercial with all these people in it, and I&#39;m like oh my God, I&#39;m going to be on TV! [Laughs.]<br />
<br />
<strong>Going from being a stylist behind the scenes to someone who&#39;s starring in TV ads has to be a pretty big transition.</strong><br />
It&#39;s different. Like four or five years ago, I was so comfortable being backstage, behind the stage, doing my thing. In a way, the whole Gaga thing and Mugler kind of pushed me in front. I was shocked at the very beginning because I&#39;m like, who are these people commenting on what I do? I wasn&#39;t really ready to be in front of people because I never planned to be a designer like this, or someone that people know. But then I slowly started seeing reactions from the few fans that I had, who told me that I was giving a positive message and inspiration to these young people, and that felt good, and I just want to keep doing that. So now, especially with Pepsi, I get to reach a much, much bigger audience on a global level. And I&#39;m very grateful for that.</p>
Advertising & Branding#PepsiChallengeBeyonceBjorkDavid LaChapelleDieselEmma BazilianLady GagamadonnaMagazine ContentMeerkatMTVNicola FormichettiPepsiPeriscopeSouth By SouthwestStyle IssueUniqloMon, 04 May 2015 01:24:49 +0000164432 at http://www.adweek.comViacom Looks for an Advertising Upper Hand With Vantage http://www.adweek.com/news/television/viacom-looks-advertising-upper-hand-vantage-164406
Chris Ariens<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/2015_Apr/viacom-logo-hed-2015.jpg"> <p>
After a year in beta, Viacom today launched Viacom Vantage, a data-driven ad product that will allow advertisers to reach custom targets across Viacom Media Networks including&nbsp;MTV, Comedy Central, VH1, Nickelodeon, CMT, Spike, TV Land and Logo.</p>
<p>
&quot;Our guiding principle is to offer best-in-class and client-centered products for our advertising partners,&quot; said Jeff Lucas, head of sales for Viacom Media Networks. &quot;Viacom Vantage is our latest cutting-edge product to deliver on that promise by enabling our clients to close the gap between how they define their true segments and where their messages can work best in reaching that audience on our shows.&quot;</p>
<p>
Viacom Vantage was piloted with several national partners including Horizon Media. Clients received deep data integration and customized capabilities, predicting which content would perform best.</p>
<p>
&quot;The results far exceeded our expectations by directly identifying and reaching our targeted consumers and providing us with precisely the right programming that would generate the highest return,&quot; said Dave Campanelli, svp and director of national television for Horizon Media.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Viacom Vantage follows last year&#39;s launch of <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/viacom-creating-full-division-devoted-branded-content-155115" target="_blank">Viacom Velocity&#39;s Echo</a>, which harnessed the network&#39;s massive social footprint for content creation, distribution, amplification and optimization.</p>
TelevisionCableComedy CentralMTVViacomWed, 29 Apr 2015 22:32:31 +0000164406 at http://www.adweek.comESPN Sues Verizon Over FiOS' New Custom TV bundlehttp://www.adweek.com/news/television/espn-sues-verizon-over-fios-new-custom-tv-bundle-164337
Jason Lynch<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/2015_Apr/espn-verizon-hed-2015.png"> <p>
ESPN isn&#39;t wasting any time in challenging Verizon&#39;s new, slimmer cable bundles as part of its FiOS service. The sports network behemoth filed suit Monday in New York Supreme Court, alleging breach of contract and seeking damages related to FiOS&#39; new Custom TV package, while claiming it seeks to stop Verizon from &quot;unfairly depriving&quot; it of &quot;the benefits of its bargain.&quot;</p>
<p>
&quot;ESPN is at the forefront of embracing innovative ways to deliver high-quality content and value to consumers on multiple platforms, but that must be done in compliance with our agreements,&quot; ESPN said in a statement. &quot;We simply ask that Verizon abide by the terms of our contracts.&quot;</p>
<p>
Verizon, however, isn&#39;t backing down. &quot;Consumers have spoken loud and clear that they want choice, and the industry should be focused on giving consumers what they want,&quot; Verizon spokesman Alberto Canal said. &quot;We are well within our rights under our agreements to offer our customers these choices.&quot;</p>
<p>
Verizon has maintained that argument since announcing its Custom TV bundles on April 17. Starting at $55 per month, Custom TV allows customers to pay for a basic channel package of more than 35 networks, including CNN, AMC, HGTV and QVC. Bundles of other channels, comprised of at least 10 channels each, are offered in seven themed tiers: Lifestyle (including Lifetime, TLC, Bravo), Entertainment (TBS, FX, USA), Pop Culture (Comedy Central, E!, MTV), Sports (ESPN, ESPN2), Kids (Nickelodeon, Disney), News &amp; Info (Fox News, MSNBC) and Sports Plus (ESPN News, NFL Network, MLB Network). Customers can choose two channel packs for no additional costs; other packs will be $10 each.</p>
<p>
ESPN immediately objected to Verizon&#39;s packages, claiming it &quot;would not be authorized by our existing agreements. Among other issues, our contracts clearly provide that neither ESPN nor ESPN2 may be distributed in a separate sports package.&quot; Verizon said that its new configurations are in line with its existing contracts with ESPN and other networks.</p>
<p>
With both companies firmly entrenched, ESPN&#39;s lawsuit appears to be the first salvo fired in what will be a bloody battle for slimmer cable packages as pay TV providers fight to keep consumers from cutting the cord.</p>
TelevisionCableEspnMTVTbsVerizon FIOSMon, 27 Apr 2015 19:06:18 +0000164337 at http://www.adweek.comMTV Wants to Make Millennials Scream http://www.adweek.com/news/television/mtv-wants-make-millennials-scream-164202
Michelle Castillo<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/jessiej-mtv-hed-2015.png"> <p>
If MTV wanted to make it clear that it was the network for millennials, it did so with aplomb during its 2015 upfront presentation at New York&#39;s Beacon Theater Tuesday night. Featuring its top hosts and a concert by pop singer Jessie J, the network showcased what it would have to offer through the lens of the youth themselves.<br />
<br />
&quot;All these MCNs [multi-channel networks] saying TV is dead, they are in our offices begging to be on MTV,&quot; Girl Code host Nessa said on stage.</p>
<p>
The network introduced eight new series, renewed 10 others&mdash;and announced a whopping 85 more shows in development. Returning shows include:</p>
<ul>
<li>
Girl Code</li>
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Teen Wolf</li>
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Catfish: The TV Show</li>
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Teen Mom 2</li>
<li>
Awkward</li>
</ul>
<p>
MTV president Stephen Friedman explained his slate of shows expresses millennials&#39; &quot;unbridled optimism&quot; despite the fact that their &quot;big dreams are harder to achieve.&quot;</p>
<p>
&quot;It means layered and ironic entertainment,&quot; Friedman said. &quot;The virtue they value above all others is hustle.&quot;</p>
<p>
Among the new shows:</p>
<ul>
<li>
America&#39;s Best Dance Crew All-Stars: Road to the VMAs, which will focus on dance teams as they take on VMA-themed challenges.</li>
<li>
Middle of the Night Show: A late-night talk show developed with College Humor, in which host Brian Murphy arrives unannounced in a random celebrity&#39;s bedroom and convinces the star to be the show&#39;s co-host on the spot.</li>
<li>
Scream: The TV Series, based on the hit &#39;90s horror series by Wes Craven, debuting June 30. MTV has updated the iconic slasher film for modern times, complete with references to connected homes and extremely rapid text messaging. (Sadly, Ghostface has gotten a makeover. The new mask is still spooky, but we have to admit we&#39;re a little nostalgic for the vintage look.)</li>
</ul>
<p>
<img alt="" src="http://www.adweek.com/files/2015_Apr/New-scream-mask-hed-2015.png" style="width: 652px; height: 367px; margin-top: 15px; margin-bottom: 15px;" /></p>
<p>
If you needed further proof the &#39;90s are back, MTV will also air Follow the Rules, a reality TV show about rapper Ja Rule. Despite the fact many of MTV&#39;s key demographic is too young to have experienced hits like &quot;I&#39;m Real&quot; and &quot;Put It on Me&quot; while they were on the charts, MTV proudly touted the half-hour documentary series as a way for fans to keep tabs with the entertainer as he raises his family of teens and college-aged kids.</p>
<p>
Echoing previous moves to include more online influencers in its programming, MTV will also be adding Todrick, a reality TV series debuting Aug. 31 about YouTube star Todrick Hall&mdash;who has amassed more than 180 million views on the platform&mdash;as he creates dance and music videos. It is also developing a scripted comedy series around Vine star Logan Paul, who has more than 7 million followers on the app and 20 million Vine views. The series will chronicle Paul&#39;s early days as an social media star.</p>
<p>
Throughout the event, MTV prided itself on being able to connect marketers with the young demographic they covet. It promoted an &quot;Always On&quot; strategy, explained&mdash;mostly&nbsp;wordlessly in an acid trip-inspired montage&mdash;via Internet memes including Zayn Malik leaving One Direction and Taylor Swift. The audience looked mostly confused, although it did crack a smile at the bright flashing graphics.</p>
<p>
The network also used online influencer talent to tout parent company Viacom&#39;s Social Talent Platform, a way for brands to connect with Internet stars for its campaigns. &quot;Hopefully, [my show] will bring my Vine fans to the network,&quot; Paul said.</p>
<p>
As for MTV, they&#39;re banking on it.</p>
Television2015-16 UpfrontAwkwardCableCollege HumorGirl CodeMichelle CastilloMTVRealityScreamTeen Mom 2teen wolfTodrickTodrick HallUpfrontUpfrontWed, 22 Apr 2015 14:15:34 +0000164202 at http://www.adweek.comAnna Kendrick Meets Amy Schumer, and Won't Soon Forget It, in MTV's New Adhttp://www.adweek.com/adfreak/anna-kendrick-meets-amy-schumer-and-wont-soon-forget-it-mtvs-new-ad-162764
Tim Nudd<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/blogs/anna-kendrick-mtv-hed-2015_0.png"> <p>
We know how much <a href="/node/155337">you love Anna Kendrick,</a> so here she is in yet another commercial where she gets to be funny and charming&mdash;this time at Amy Schumer&#39;s expense.</p>
<p>
Schumer is hosting the MTV Movie Awards in April, for which this serves as an early promo. Nothing too exciting happens, but it&#39;s entertaining nonetheless. If nothing else, Kendrick has shown time and again that she can <a href="/node/161438">make something out of nothing.</a><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="367" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Io8dDhjjkgc?rel=0" width="652"></iframe><br />
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&quot;It was great to work with such a variety of comedians and actors in the campaign,&quot; said the director, Kim Nguyen of Backyard, in a statement. &quot;It&#39;s fun leading them into different directions and providing an environment where they are willing to take chances and bring something different to each take. That collaboration really opened up so many funny possibilities that our entire crew was holding back laughter take after take.&quot;</p>
<p>
The MTV Movie Awards air on Sunday, April 12, at 8/7c.</p>
<p>
<strong>CREDITS</strong><br />
Client: MTV&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />
SVP, Creative MTV: Amy Campbell<br />
EVP, Marketing MTV: Tina Exarhos<br />
Creative Director: Noah Phillips<br />
Copywriters: Neil Casey, Kim Caramelle, Jessi Klein, Christine Nangle<br />
Copywriter: Amy Schumer<br />
Art Director: Lance Russoff<br />
Production Companies: Backyard; Outer Borough<br />
Director: Kim Nguyen<br />
Executive Producer: Kris Walter<br />
Line Producer: Janie Brown Kelly<br />
Directors of Photography: Aaron Phillips, Joe Arcidiacono<br />
Editing: Cosmo Street; Great City Productions<br />
Editor: Tiffany Burchard</p>
Advertising & BrandingTelevisionAmy SchumerAnna KendrickCableMTVTim NuddWed, 04 Feb 2015 15:19:42 +0000162764 at http://www.adweek.comViacom Is Trying Something New for Cable Upfront Seasonhttp://www.adweek.com/news/television/viacom-trying-something-totally-new-cable-upfront-season-162678
Sam Thielman<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/tt-maze-runner-01-2015.png"> <p>
When the head of a major cable conglomerate calls ratings falloff &quot;an important secular issue,&quot; it may be time to look for solutions outside traditional channels, and that&#39;s exactly what Viacom&#39;s ad sales team is doing. That remark, by the way, was made by Viacom president and CEO Philippe Dauman on the company&#39;s Q1 earnings call last week, and it&#39;s an important observation. Viewing habits are changing, and gross rating points are getting less and less desirable as network content flows through multiple, unmeasured channels. That hurts ad dollars. &quot;Inadequate measurement undermines innovation and disproportionately impacts ... multiplatform experiences that viewers demand,&quot; Dauman told investors. &quot;While it is currently a reality of our business, at Viacom we are not waiting for change.&quot;</p>
<p>
At client-only presentations in New York last month, Viacom laid out its upfront season pitch to offer more to (and hopefully get more from) its advertiser base. The plan is a complex and daring one. Many networks will be pitching integrations and fancy metrics on those and other social platforms, but in a world of steadily decreasing attention to TV among young people, the precious remaining viewership in young-adult demos is dominated by the conglomerate that owns Comedy Central, MTV, VH1 and other brands aimed directly at this group of consumers.</p>
<p>
The company has known for awhile that it can&#39;t rest on its laurels as <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/tv-viewing-continues-shift-online-161789" target="_blank">TV consumption changes dramatically,</a> so it&#39;s been using a two-pronged approach&mdash;Velocity, its in-house unit that uses data overlay software for clients trying to locate the most valuable ad placements on Viacom&#39;s air; and Echo, the company&#39;s social advertising platform, which now partners with Spredfast to measure not just users but quality&mdash;yes, a post on Facebook is superior to a like. &quot;More isn&#39;t always more in terms of total reach,&quot; evp of integrated marketing Dario Spina said.</p>
<p>
And in the programming itself, head of ad sales Jeff Lucas is focusing on the shows, not the pods.</p>
<p>
&quot;[We&#39;re selling] deep integrations, and they&#39;re going to be removable,&quot; said Lucas. &quot;If a client has a sale&mdash;say Toyota has a new car&mdash;they can run an integration for the first 30 days and then pull it right out. We&#39;ll shoot secondary footage we can slot into the background instead. If it&#39;s CPG, they can leave it in forever, and it goes wherever the show goes&mdash;Hulu, Netflix, whatever.&quot;</p>
<p>
That may sound small, but it&#39;s a large and key difference for advertisers with timing concerns&mdash;movies, new autos, retailers having a sale&mdash;who might not be interested in integrations otherwise. And Viacom is putting full-blown, show-length ads on its air, with specials on movies and video games sponsored by studios and software makers. A recent one, called Million Dollar Maze Runner and sponsored by Fox, featured contestants competing in a <a href="http://www.mtv.com/shows/million-dollar-maze-runner/" target="_blank">Maze Runner-themed MTV game show</a> in an abandoned prison for a million dollars and a pair of cars. When it aired in September, it was a sizable success not just as advertising but also as programming.</p>
<p>
Niels Schuurmans, evp of Velocity, remembers the experiment fondly. &quot;The kid who was in second place wanted it so much!&quot; he said. &quot;He was just devastated. Finally I just pulled him aside and was like, &#39;You&#39;re getting $8,000.&#39; It&#39;s a weird figure, but no one complained.&quot;</p>
<p>
And make no mistake, advertisers desperately need Viacom and similar linear outlets, where an $8,000 splurge to make a contestant happy is the biggest headache. Social advertising? &quot;It&#39;s the Wild West,&quot; sighed Julie Rieger, evp of media for 20th Century Fox, who ran point on Fox&#39;s complex (and wildly successful) multilevel campaign for The Maze Runner, the teen-targeted sci-fi thriller that became one of the most profitable films of the year when it pulled in some $341 million worldwide&mdash;more than 10 times its production budget.</p>
<p>
Much of the splash the company made didn&#39;t come through traditional channels, either&mdash;Viacom is selling advertising on its high-traffic social media accounts and through its revenue-sharing agreements with Twitter and Tumblr. Traditionally, online media created by TV networks exists primarily to push Web users back to linear TV; Viacom is learning how to let it ride.</p>
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And that&#39;s good because multimillion-dollar enterprises don&#39;t have much of a sense of humor when it comes to professionalism, and the most powerful voices on social media that reach this audience segment are ungovernable, unprofessional and unstoppable&mdash;many of them teenagers themselves, who can speak directly to their peers via Vine and Snapchat and Tumblr. &quot;I miss stage moms,&quot; Rieger confessed. &quot;These kids, many of them are making six figures and some are making seven. We are so open to working this way, to accepting all of those things. But there&#39;s going to have to be some more accountability, or we&#39;ll just have to stop working with some people. My job is doing what&#39;s right for Fox and for our films.&quot;</p>
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And Viacom is one of the last bastions of old-fashioned, knowable business culture that also has some appeal to young consumers whose opinions are still forming&mdash;ratings, schmatings, you&#39;re always going to get more potential Maze Runner viewers on Teen Wolf than The Good Wife, and analysts at MoffettNathanson say that the company sources 14 percent of all television viewing, period. (The firm rates Viacom as a &quot;buy&quot; and has a target share price for it of $84, quite a ways from its $67 price at this writing.) Ad dollars were down 6 percent at the company last year, but they&#39;re up in the most recent quarter and projected up through the current quarter.</p>
<p>
And there&#39;s no denying the power of the platforms, at least not for Rieger. &quot;They had the right relationship with their audience,&quot; she said. &quot;The fear when you enter into a relationship with a marketer is that it&#39;ll be a one-hit thing, and you need to enter into these relationships for three to four weeks. They were incredibly integral in the opening of the film.&quot;</p>
Television20th Century FoxCableComedy CentralCPMsDataSam ThielmanHuluintegrationMagazine ContentMTVNetflixNetworkssocial advertisingUpfrontsVH1ViacomMon, 02 Feb 2015 23:30:39 +0000162678 at http://www.adweek.comThis Agency Lifted Revenue 60% by Mastering Instagramhttp://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/agency-lifted-revenue-60-killing-it-instagram-162504
Christopher Heine<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/movement-strategy-01-2015.jpg"> <p>
<img alt="" src="/files/uploads/SPACER-652.gif" style="width: 10px; height: 1px; " /><br />
<u><strong>Specs</strong></u><br />
<strong>Who</strong> Far left: Christy Pregont, creative director; back left: Jason Mitchell, co-founder; center: Stephen Para, evp, chief growth officer; back right: Nick Hoppe, media strategy director; front right: Eric Dieter, co-founder<br />
<strong>What</strong> Social marketing agency<br />
<strong>Where </strong>New York and Boulder, Colo.</p>
<p>
Since <a href="http://www.movementstrategy.com/" target="_blank">The Movement Strategy</a> was born at the dawn of social marketing in 2008, the digital shop has shown a natural capacity to generate branded buzz, helping wrap up a banner year that resulted in a 60 percent revenue jump. Look no further than its late 2014 Instagram work for Lifetime&#39;s Project Runway, which encouraged consumers to submit fashion looks to be featured on the popular reality competition show.</p>
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The effort, dubbed <a href="http://iconosquare.com/tag/instarunway" target="_blank">#InstaRunway</a>, garnered 8,000 photos and 5 million Instagram likes, making it easy to see why MTV, USA Today and LAN Airlines also entrust Movement with their social media projects. &quot;We have developed processes and software specific to social media,&quot; said co-founder Jason Mitchell. &quot;[And] we believe very strongly that our creative sets us apart.&quot;</p>
Advertising & BrandingBoulderdigital shopsMagazine ContentMovement StrategyMTVChristopher HeineProject RunwayUSATue, 27 Jan 2015 23:00:01 +0000162504 at http://www.adweek.comMTV Marks MLK Day by Airing in Black and Whitehttp://www.adweek.com/news/television/mtv-will-mark-mlk-day-airing-black-and-white-162413
Sam Thielman<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/mtv-mlk-hed-2015.png"> <p>
For 12 hours starting at 9 a.m. this Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (Monday, Jan. 19), MTV will mark the civil rights leader&#39;s memory by airing in black and white.</p>
<p>
As part of its ongoing anti-bias campaign, Look Different, MTV will launch <a href="http://www.lookdifferent.org/the-talk" target="_blank">a new series of PSAs titled &quot;The Talk&quot;</a> on MLK Day. The spots will run at the beginning of every ad pod throughout the day. They&#39;ll feature reflections on race from public figures, many of them people of color, including Kendrick Lamar, whose most recent album dropped to near-universal acclaim; and Ava DuVernay and David Oyelowo, both widely praised (though snubbed by the Academy) for respectively directing and starring in MLK biopic Selma.</p>
<p>
&quot;Millennials believe strongly in fairness, but they can also find it difficult to talk openly about race&mdash;to be not simply &#39;color blind&#39; but &#39;color brave,&#39;&quot; said Stephen Friedman, president of MTV.&nbsp; &quot;Our audience is looking for a way to bring the national conversation on race into their homes, and this campaign will give them a forum to express true color bravery.&quot;</p>
<p>
The PSAs that will air during the black-and-white programming block focus on encouraging open discussions of race rather than simply trying to ignore the cultural, social and political realities of race in America.</p>
<p>
&quot;To be color blind is not a thing I think that one should boast about,&quot; says DuVernay in her PSA. &quot;See color and celebrate it. See our differences and celebrate it. When someone says to me &#39;I&#39;m color blind, I don&#39;t see color&#39;, I&#39;m thinking they&#39;re missing out.&quot;&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Others participating in the initiative include Civil Rights pioneer and U.S. Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, singer Jordin Sparks and Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz. Although Booker and Lewis are Democrats, the campaign also includes a message from Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
While some critics may say MTV is simply trying to draw attention for itself <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/press/eric-garner-and-michael-brown-join-mlk-civil-rights-martyrs-new-yorkers-cover-162411" target="_blank">amid a volatile period of race relations,</a> it&#39;s worth noting that most businesses marking MLK Day would rather treat King&#39;s struggle as a matter of history rather than an issue still alive today.</p>
<p>
&quot;It is important to talk about race because we live in a racial-conscious society,&quot; says longtime civil rights leader Lewis in his message on MTV. &quot;We cannot sweep the issue of race under the American rug or into some dark corner.&quot;</p>
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<iframe frameborder="0" height="367" src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/embed/mgid:uma:video:mtv.com:1159355/cp~vid%3D1159355%26uri%3Dmgid%3Auma%3Avideo%3Amtv.com%3A1159355" width="652"></iframe></p>
TelevisionAva DuVernayCablekendrick lamarMTVPSAsSam ThielmanViacomSun, 18 Jan 2015 20:00:01 +0000162413 at http://www.adweek.comViacom’s Downturns Have Gotten So Predictable They’re an Easy Buck for Investorshttp://www.adweek.com/news/television/viacom-s-downturns-have-gotten-so-predictable-they-re-easy-buck-investors-161314
Sam Thielman<p>
As usual, <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/google-and-viacom-finally-bury-hatchet-156369" target="_blank">Viacom</a> is doomed.</p>
<p>
People have been preaching the End of Days for the company since Tom Freston left and was replaced by Philippe Dauman in 2006, and yet it still trundles along, making quite a bit of money despite myriad objections to its programming decisions, its executive appointments and its advertising strategy (Spike, at one point, was airing a 38-minute hour).</p>
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<img src="/files/imagecache/node-detail/tt-viacom-01-2014.jpg" />
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<span class="meta-credit">Union: Manny Hernandez/Getty Images; Minaj: Jason<br />
Laveris/Filmmagic</span></p>
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Not only does none of this matter, but the conventional wisdom presents an incredible opportunity for investors, according to Michael Nathanson of <a href="http://moffettresearch.com" target="_blank">r</a><a href="http://moffettresearch.com" target="_blank">esearch firm MoffettNathanson.</a></p>
<p>
&quot;For the third time in less than seven years, Viacom is again beset by collapsing ratings ... negative advertising ... and a free fall in its relative valuation,&quot; Nathanson wrote in a report. &quot;Historically, this sequence of events has given contrarian and patient investors a &lsquo;fat-pitch&rsquo; way to make money.&quot;</p>
<p>
None of this is to say that Viacom (or, indeed, cable TV) is doing well&mdash;PUT (Persons Using Television) levels fell dramatically in the third quarter of this year, both across the board and particularly seriously at Viacom&rsquo;s networks, with demo declines, too, at MTV (which is off by a full 25 percent) and Nick (off by 20). Those two are the company&rsquo;s bread and butter, and they&rsquo;ve tended to rely disproportionately on individual franchises. In Nick&rsquo;s case, it simply had an amazing third quarter last year&mdash;the network ranked No. 1 not just in the demo but in total viewers&mdash;and in MTV&rsquo;s case, it was the Teen Mom franchise that tanked. (The network went through much the same thing when Jersey Shore got canceled.) All of this makes the network appear volatile. But the truth is that it manages to pull in disproportionate numbers of viewers in a demo that is fast abandoning television with buzzy series; the model looks more like a win-some-lose-some film studio strategy than a television network, especially with the largely unsung <a href="http://www.cc.com" target="_blank">Comedy Central </a>(which recently had three consecutive quarters of monster growth&mdash;33.8 percent up in Q3 of last year alone).</p>
<p>
This week&rsquo;s earnings report from the company should prove interesting. Dauman had to field questions about the weak ad market last quarter; this time he&rsquo;s pretty much certain to get grief about low ratings. But Nathanson observes that Viacom isn&rsquo;t merely experiencing speed bumps like PUT and ad revenue declines&mdash;it&rsquo;s at the vanguard of an industry that is going to have to cope with those problems en masse.</p>
<p>
Viacom is also fighting with small cable operators, who are simply dropping its package in an effort to keep costs down as carriage agreement renewals rear their heads, but you can bet the company&rsquo;s strategies on this front are being analyzed carefully by all of its competitors. AMC Networks, A+E Networks and Scripps are all in a similar boat. Either Viacom will figure out an effective strategy or it will consolidate until it&rsquo;s part of an entity big enough to get its way. For Nathanson, that spells sound investment.</p>
TelevisionBET NetworksCableCable TVJersey ShoreMagazine ContentSam ThielmanNickelodeonRatingsRealitySpikeTeen MomViacomVideoMon, 10 Nov 2014 05:02:34 +0000161314 at http://www.adweek.comDid Vine Star Jerome Jarre Just Walk Out on $1 Million Ad Deal?http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/did-vine-star-jerome-jarre-just-walk-out-1-million-ad-deal-161050
Garett Sloane<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/jerome-jarre-01-2014.jpg"> <p>
It&#39;s like<a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/espn25/story?page=moments/91" target="_blank"> Michael Jordan retiring</a> before ever actually signing with the Bulls. Jerome Jarre, a huge social video star, can&#39;t take it anymore and is leaving the ad game, just before he made his first million, too.</p>
<p>
Jarre has been a personality on Vine for a couple years, making six-second videos that actually delight a lot of people. Now, he says he&#39;s done making videos for profit. Whether that&#39;s true remains to be seen, but he did post a going-away video on YouTube, promoted on Snapchat, which shows him telling his ad agency he is done.</p>
<p>
No more strings on Jarre was the message. <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/jerome-jarre-talks-squirrels-and-schools-brands-vine-160108" target="_blank">Adweek featured Jarre</a> in its social issue last month, and the Frenchman gave no hint that he was thinking of retiring.</p>
<p>
Jarre has been a prot&eacute;g&eacute; and partner of Gary Vaynerchuk in a social marketing startup, GrapeStory.</p>
<p>
This week&#39;s YouTube video shows Jarre going into his agency and turning down $1 million for a one-year contract with the &quot;world&#39;s biggest brand,&quot; which goes unnamed.</p>
<p>
It&#39;s unclear how genuine Jarre is in the video, as one YouTube commenter pointed out some of the action is filmed with a hidden camera in a conference room, which we are supposed to believe he retrieved after leaving the agency.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
GrapeStory could not immediately be reached for comment.</p>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="367" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/CIuJOYceU3o" width="652"></iframe></p>
<p>
It would be understandable that Jarre would want to promote his brand as uncorrupted by corporate interests, and depict himself rejecting big money for personal integrity.&nbsp;He has worked with companies like GE and MTV. Jarre is in Mexico now, enjoying free guacamole.</p>
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<iframe class="vine-embed" frameborder="0" height="600" src="https://vine.co/v/OMhB7vJ6J3Z/embed/simple" width="600"></iframe><script async src="//platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
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TechnologyGeneral ElectricJerome JarreMobileMTVSnapchatGarett Sloanesocial media advertisingVineYoutubeTue, 28 Oct 2014 15:27:33 +0000161050 at http://www.adweek.com